2014 Toyota LandCruiser Prado gets facelifted

Only nips and tucks for Toyota’s aging mainstay SUV
By Imthishan Giado

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

With four years under its belt, the time has come for Toyota’s Prado midsize SUV to receive is midlife facelift. Not before time either; this J150 generation has struggled to match the popularity of the previous J120 Prado. Debuting all the way back in 2003, the latter was one of the region’s bestselling SUVs, thanks to a combination of genuine rugged offroad ability, Tonka Toy styling and excellent interior refinement. The followup disappointed with bulbous amphibious landing craft looks and little in the way of upgrades beyond lots of electronic offroad gizmos and a finicky air suspension system that made many an owner wonder if his car was slightly lopsided.

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

So what does the ‘new’ Prado have to offer? For starters, it’s bigger – the five door and the three door have grown by 20mm with a longer front overhang – precisely what you don’t want in an offroad car, although Toyota claims the 32-degree approach angle hasn’t changed. Ah yes, the new overhang; the front fascia sports a restyled, even more bechromed five-bar grille and ‘rectilinear’ headamps with integrated LEDs. Suspenions is also claimed to have been ‘revised.’

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

At the rear, the taillamps are also new with clear lenses inset of a red-accented design, rather unsurprisingly reminiscent of the earlier more successful J120 rear end. There’s also new designs for the 17″ alloy wheels and 18″ alloys and a more “three dimensional” licence plate – read lots and lots of chrome.

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

The interior sees some detail upgrades, most noticeable of which being the new 4.2″ colour display for the instrument panel. The audio knobs for volume and tuning have now been relocated to above the main navigation display making life appreciably difficult for the aftermarket audio installers.

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

Better news below – they’ve cleaned up the earlier model’s mishmash of indecipherable offroad controls and replaced it all with one Land Rover-style Terrain Response knob – or as Toyota calls, Multi Terrain Select. Redundant buttons remain for key functions like height control, locking the centre and rear diffs and switching from high to low range. 

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Europe gets the usual 190bhp diesel 3.0-litre but we’ll continue to receive the 4.0-litre V6 with what seems to be a slight bump to 282bhp from the existing 271bhp, mated to a five-speed auto – and for the economy-minded, the gutless 2.7-litre four cylinder is bound to continue as well.

2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
Frankly, we’re not impressed. Where big brother impressed with its exterior facelift last year coupled with more powerful base and midrange engines, this Prado seems barely different except for the ignominy of being even more ugly than and bloated than before. Sandwiched between cheaper car-based rivals like the new Ford Explorer and the Nissan Pathfinder and more luxurious crossovers like the Evoque on the high end, is there still a place for the Prado?

Do you think the new Prado is perfectly honed? Does Toyota need to do more to keep up with the competition? Let us know below!

3 responses to “2014 Toyota LandCruiser Prado gets facelifted”

  1. Omar says:

    Just when you thought it cannot get any uglier…

  2. khalid mohammad says:

    Well Prado will still stand the place of being in the competition because of the popularity it has earned among the public. Toyota is such a manufacturer which has given less maintenance and more durability. Prado lacks high tech gizmos,but it surely will be the star among the other SUV’S.

  3. Rojy says:

    Frankly speaking , now a days people prefer SUV’s for prestige,space,high seating position rather than offraod abilities or outright performane.

    It will continue to sell among value oriented custumer’s who want space ,high resale value,fuel effiecieny & relaiblity however it drives or performs actually on or off road.

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